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Blesstns attD 3San 

PROM THE 

Cross of Christ 

MEDITATIONS 

ON THE SEVEN WORDS ON THE CROSS 


GIVEN IN TRINITY CHURCH, NEW YORK, ON 
GOOD FRIDAY, A. D. 1894 

BY 

MORGAN DIX 

RECTOR OP TRINITY CHURCH, NEW YORK 




3 * 

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* 


NEW YORK 

JAMES POTT & COMPANY, Publishers 

FOURTH AVENUE AND 22D STREET 

1898 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED- 

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4-- BV 

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Copyright, 1898, by 
James Pott & Company. 



3[ttttobuctiom 


In the good Providence of God, we are 
permitted once again to keep watch during 
the hours of Good Friday around the Cross 
of Christ. We look, by faith, to the time 
when we shall see the sign of the Son of 
Man in heaven, and shall behold Him whom 
they pierced on His return to judge the 
earth and the world by fire. Until that day 
the servants can do no more than to heed 
and follow His command: “What I say 
unto you I say unto all, Watch.” And 
therefore are we here to watch, with fear, 
with hope, with love, with searchings of 
heart, where our Lord was crucified. 

It has usually been our custom to en¬ 
deavour to transfer ourselves to that scene 


INTRODUCTION. 


during the hours of the most dread Passion; 
to try to see Him on the Cross, and to ima¬ 
gine ourselves among that wild, disorderly 
throng which then possessed the place. 
Jesus Himself, all wounds and blood, was 
the object of our attention; and from the 
Blessed Feet up to the Head, we drew our les¬ 
son of the horror of sin,the love of God, the 
peril of those who stand apart and refuse 
this great salvation. But now let us change 
the hour and look at Calvary from another 
point of view. Let us suppose that the day 
is far spent, and that it is towards evening. 
The sun, long hidden, has set; the stars 
are beginning to appear; the moon makes 
light in the sky. The Passion is over; the 
crowds have gone; the Roman soldiers have 
marched off. The hill is now desolate, and 
silence reigns upon the land. The crosses, 
three in number, stand where they were; 
but the bodies, at the request of the scru¬ 
pulous Sabbath-keepers, have been taken 
away. These instruments of suffering and 


INTRODUCTION. 


death are now the only objects on which the 
eye may rest; and two of them are soon 
forgotten, as the view of the one in the 
midst absorbs the powers of memory and 
thought. Here is that Holy Cross on which 
did die the Lamb of God, the Altar on which 
was offered, once for all, the full, perfect, 
and sufficient sacrifice for the sin of the 
whole world. Here is that gift which men 
prepared for their Saviour, in acknowledg¬ 
ment of what He had done for them, in tes¬ 
timony of their estimate of what He deserved 
to receive in return at their hands. On this 
hard frame of wood was He nailed up, a 
spectacle to the world and to angels and to 
men. There did He show the breadth of His 
love to sinners; there did He part from those 
whom, having loved in this world, He loved 
unto the end; and then, after going through 
such horror of great darkness as no fancy 
fathoms, did He announce the consumma¬ 
tion of the end and yield up His spirit to the 
Father. With thoughts and recollections of 


INTRODUCTION. 


all this we now view that Cross, which stands, 
empty, silent, and portentous, in its place as 
the night creeps forward; and it speaks to 
us of many things, and its lessons sink into 
the soul and spirit, and they are for all ages 
and generations till the end. For what does 
this Cross stand ? What does it mean ? Of 
what, as a symbol, does it preach? What 
truths does it tell, what falsehoods contra¬ 
dict, what hopes inspire ? What things does 
this object teach us which no other object 
ever did or ever can ? What in our life do 
we owe distinctly to the Cross as the repre¬ 
sentative of ideas, principles, motives with¬ 
out which our life would be undistinguishable 
from that of those who know not G-od ? What 
and how much would go out of our life if the 
Cross were to cease and disappear, leaving 
for us other symbols and other inspirations ? 
Many are astray in this world; many wan¬ 
der ; many are stumbling on the dark'moun- 
tains. Many wait for light, but behold 
obscurity; for brightness, but they walk in 


INTRODUCTION. 


darkness. They grope for the wall like the 
blind; they grope as if they had no eyes. 
They stumble at noonday as in the night. 
They are in desolate places, as dead men. 
We meet such persons every day. Now 
and then some of that number come to us 
and ask why we are not like themselves, 
what the Cross does for us, why we trust it 
as we do—men and women who would also 
have that peace if they could find it, that 
peace which none ever find away from Jesus 
Christ, and Him crucified. We would invite 
these seekers after the truth to come apart 
with us, and meditate of the meaning of the 
Cross. Our Lord is seen by the bodily eye 
no more; He is gone into heaven, there to 
appear in the Presence of God for us; and, 
earnestly as we long for one view or even, 
might it be, for one glimpse of Him, to 
steady, support, help us on our way, the 
time for that is not come. But His symbol 
is always before our eyes. It is, strangely, 
stamped on many an object in the natural 


INTRODUCTION. 


world. It reads itself into every man’s ex¬ 
perience, and tells him wondrous things in 
his listening soul. It is on the spires of 
churches; it is over the altars of His Pres¬ 
ence ; it is in our houses, our oratories; it is 
on the flags of many a Christian nation; it 
is a sign in earth, sea, and sky, which none 
can overlook. And it speaks; it tells truth; 
it reads lessons. What is its voice ? What 
are those truths ? What are those lessons ? 
Let us, in the twilight of Good Friday, and 
now in the Presence of the Lord, with His 
Eye upon us, try to answer those questions, 
for the good of our own souls, and for the 
help of those whom we perhaps may bring 
to Jesus out of the darkness and distraction 
of their life. And to that end, and in order 
that we may better take in these lessons, it 
is proposed, in the meditations of this day, 
to look at the bare and silent Cross, and to 
hearken to the double voices which go from 
it. That Cross doth both bless and ban; it 
is both light and darkness. On one side, it 


INTRODUCTION. 


gives the blessing of peace; on another side, 
it carries the curse of Grod. We shall try to 
hear that twofold voice: to feel what the 
Cross is for good to the believer, and what 
for ill to the ungodly; its power to help, its 
power to cast down and overthrow; its pre¬ 
ciousness to the men of faith, its dire utter¬ 
ance to those described as the enemies of 
the Cross of Christ, whose end is destruction. 




®fje fiqSt JOotb. 

St. Luke xxiii. 34. 


Hobe. 



€tfe fitsst IBorti. 


Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know 
not what they do. And they parted His raiment, and cast 
lots.— St. Luke xxiii. 34. 

None can doubt what is the first lesson 
from the Cross: that of love, of unbounded 
charity to all. Love was the subject of the 
angels, who sang, the night when Jesus was 
born, “ Peace, good will to men.” Love is 
almost the last word which Jesus spoke 
when He passed away from us in death. 
Thus the work of our redemption, from first 
to last, displayed the charity of God, and 
His pity and love for the children of men. 
Even they who nailed their Saviour to the 
Cross were the objects of His divine com¬ 
passion: “Father, forgive them; for they 
know not what they do.” 


THE FIRST WORD. 


Ever since, the teaching of the Cross has 
been a teaching of the power of love. There 
was nothing like this of old. The world was 
a hard and cruel place; its records are but 
annals of the triumph of force, of the suc¬ 
cessful career of tyrants, the oppression of 
the weak, the taking vengeance on enemies. 
The history of far-off days takes shape in 
four or five great empires, each built upon 
the overthrow of its predecessor. A prophet, 
in his vision by night, beholds the four winds 
of heaven striving upon the great sea, and 
then great beasts come up from the sea, each 
strong and fierce, till one appears, dreadful 
and terrible, and strong exceedingly, which 
devours and breaks in pieces. This is the 
world force consolidated for grinding down 
and destroying the weak, and its maxims are 
hate, jealousy, revenge. And this force, as 
is its wont, gathers itself up and strikes at 
God when He comes here to help and save; 
and it is met by the spirit which thinketh 
no evil and hateth nothing that God has 


THE FIRST WORD. 


made. Of love, the infinite, the amazing 
love of Christ, the Cross speaks to ns as the 
day of the Passion ends and deep stillness 
holds the land. 

That lesson! The Cross has gone on teach¬ 
ing it nearly two thousand years. Has it 
been taught in vain? Yes, apparently so; 
it is neither soon learned nor easily learned. 
Two thousand years of instruction from this 
Master, and how little progress we have 
made! Do not fall into the error of think¬ 
ing that Christ expected the world to follow 
Him, to adopt His principles, to keep His 
laws, to take upon it His yoke. The world 
has never done that—has never thought of 
doing that. The whole world still lieth in 
wickedness, although the Son of God is 
come. The passions of the natural heart, 
still active everywhere, attest that in it there 
is no change. None should be looked for, 
except as here and there a particular heart is 
touched, a special and elect soul is converted 
to God. The world is still a hard and cruel 


THE FIRST WORD. 


place. The spirit of the age is not a spirit of 
love, or, if of love, then of love of self, not love 
of God or of man, for God’s sake and in God. 
The Cross stands among ns, as it stood in 
that evening of the First Age, rebuking and 
convicting of sin. It watches the indiffer¬ 
ence of the rich to the sorrows of the poor, 
the hatred of the poor burning against the 
comfortable and luxurious rich. It watches 
the revival of the spirit of brutality among 
us, shown in the passion for dangerous 
sports. It watches the diabolical cruelties 
practised on innocent animals in the name 
of scientific investigation. It watches the 
packing of men, women, and children into 
great cities, where they can scarce breathe 
or move, and cannot be said to live, for this 
degraded and deplorable condition scarce 
deserves the name of life. It watches upon 
the multiform shapes of envy, malice, rivalry, 
competition, under which men afflict and 
grieve one another and make one another un¬ 
happy. Do you blame the Cross for looking 


THE FIRST WORD. 


on all this so calmly—for not serving as a 
talisman to exorcise all the foul spirits of the 
time ? If so, you expect of the Cross what 
you have no right to expect. Nowhere is 
the conversion of the world promised. No¬ 
thing on record by Him or His Apostles leads 
us to expect a general and radical change 
in man, by which the earth shall be turned 
to Paradise, and its tenants to lovely and 
angelic beings devoted to one another in the 
love of their Lord. Christ has done great 
things for us. His teachings and example 
have to a large extent ameliorated the con¬ 
dition of mankind. There are earnest efforts 
here and there to follow Him, to realise His 
life, to be, so far as may be, like Him. But 
the world, as such, is not reached; now and 
again the old passions break out, the worst 
of the dreadful past comes back; and the 
value of the Cross is this: that it keeps the 
divine ideals before us, while society denies 
their beauty and sets up its idols in their 
place. We are before the Cross, not as if to 


THE FIRST WORD. 


look for some sudden miracle to be wrought 
through it, but simply to study it, to muse 
of what it means, and to save ourselves from 
the sin and loss of forgetting the truth and 
taking up with a falsehood in place of it. 
Know this, that apart from the doctrine of 
the Cross there is no remedy for the evil 
done through want of charity. There is no 
change in the hearts of men between the old 
days and our own, save what divine grace 
may have wrought. We need the teaching 
of the Cross to assure us that no change will 
ever come on us by any other instrument or 
in any other way. That is the first lesson 
from this symbol, for society as for us each 
apart. Love is the greatest thing of all, the 
first thing needed to make the world better. 
The Cross has taught that lesson widely, and 
yet, take the world all through, the men who 
have learned it are but a handful. To the 
masses it is an unknown tongue, a speech not 
understanded of them. Nothing but divine 
and holy love will help the world; and yet 


THE FIRST WORD. 


men love themselves first, and their neigh¬ 
bours afterwards to such extent as may not 
prove inconvenient, and God not at all. 
One of the most discouraging of the signs 
of the times is the extent to which the 
divine Saviour is left out by those who 
profess to be trying to help and comfort 
the poor. In such comfort as they give, the 
Saviour who loved us and bought us with 
His Blood is never mentioned. It is an alien 
speech, a foreign language, that they talk. 
They shun the Cross as an evil and sinister 
omen. To put the Cross away, out of sight, 
out of thought, is the object, that they may be 
free to teach a gospel of their own, stimulat¬ 
ing the natural desires of the flesh. And 
the longer this goes on, and the further this 
Christless propaganda shall be pushed, the 
more surely shall society be turned back into 
the old darkness; and if the time should 
come when Christ and the Cross shall cease 
to influence the race and draw men out of 
the world and up to them, that hour will see 


THE FIRST WORD. 


the world a hell once more, as cruel, as hope¬ 
less, as any tract where barbarism reigns 
triumphant, and where love, mercy, and 
truth are dead. Nothing can stay the flood 
of sin, lust, envy, wrath, but that strong 
barrier which Christ built in His time and 
whereon He planted the image of the Cross. 

Fear not. Whatever changes are at hand, 
whatever course the ungodly may run, the 
Cross can never be removed from sight. It 
stands in the gathering twilight of modern 
heathenism, just where it did of old, preach¬ 
ing of many things necessary for these times, 
and, first, of the love of Christ which passeth 
knowledge, without which whatsoever liveth 
is counted dead before God. 


€i)e dSetonb JBocb. 

St. Luke xxiii. 42 , 43 . 


SJmmortaUt?. 








®fjc £cconb i©orb. 


And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou 
comest into Thy kingdom. 

And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day 
shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.— St. LuKExxiii. 42, 43. 

We have heard the first of the messages 
and reproofs from the Cross. Listen, for the 
second comes. After each word of Christ 
there is silence, and in that silence is heard, 
first, one special teaching from His Cross, 
which teaching is to go on till the end of the 
world, and, secondly, some special reproof 
and rebnke, which likewise shall find its 
mark in sinful men as long as time shall 
last. Do not mistake the meaning of this 
instrument on which the Lord suffered. It 
represents His mercy; it equally displays 
His just and righteous judgment upon every 


THE SECOND WORD. 


soul of man that doeth evil. In our medita¬ 
tion to-day we take its messages all together, 
whether they comfort in trouble, or whether 
they convict of sin. 

And so the first message was that love is 
the strongest power in the universe, and the 
only principle that can set right the hard¬ 
ness, injustice, cruelty, of the world; and the 
corresponding warning was this, that who¬ 
soever tries to set the world right on any 
other principle, and without the help of the 
Cross of Christ, is doomed to end in total 
and final and hopeless failure. Now let us 
see what message comes, and what reproof 
comes, after the utterance of the second 
word of Christ. 

Men have no stronger, no more urgent 
need than this: to know if there be another 
life. It is an importunate demand, which 
may be stilled for a while when cares dull 
spiritual perception and pleasures stupefy 
the higher nature; but it comes back, that 
question: “If a man die , shall he live again f ” 


THE SECOND WORD. 


No question calls so loudly for an answer; 
none is so plainly, so definitely answered 
elsewhere. There is somewhat startling in 
the way in which the answer is given. 

What happened that day on Calvary ? Two 
men were dying with Christ, the one on the 
right hand, the other on the left. To one of 
those men it was announced that he should 
live, though death meanwhile had come; 
that he should retain his conscious being; 
that he should find himself in a certain place, 
which Jesus named; that he should be there 
in the company of the Lord; and that all 
this should be on that same day, and on that 
very afternoon, and before the sun was set. 
It would not be possible to put a promise 
into words more exact than these, and the 
substance thereof we take to be so plain that 
it cannot be misunderstood. The reward of 
repentance, faith, love, humility, is sure. It 
is to be enjoyed in the rest of Paradise. And 
therefore to the Cross as now it stands be¬ 
fore us, unfolding its meanings one by one, 


THE SECOND WORD. 


we owe a perfectly clear and delightful view 
of a realm of rest and peace beyond these 
scenes. 

We owe this assurance to the Cross and 
what it stands for. No such assurance 
existed of old. Immortality was hardly be¬ 
lieved by the wise. The poets sang of it, 
and popular notions of Elysian fields, and 
shadows of departed heroes, and images of 
ancestors caught up into the air and set 
among the stars, were held, with base, de¬ 
grading conceptions of migration of souls 
of men into the carcasses of beasts; but as 
to a distinct and intelligent knowledge of the 
future, there was none. Not till Jesus came, 
and lived, and died, and rose again, were life 
and immortality brought to light. 

This is the second message of the Cross, 
the announcement of the world beyond the 
tomb. Now let us hear the reproof from the 
Cross. It takes the old familiar shape of 
wondering remonstrance: “Why are ye 
fearful, 0 ye of little faith!” 


THE SECOND WOBD. 


Are we not sometimes fearful? Are we 
not often doubtful? Do we not, now and 
then, wish for some sign that it is surely 
true? A horrible dread will occasionally 
steal over the soul and make the heart grow 
cold. The men in the old pagan days did 
not half believe in immortality. The men 
in these days of revival of pagan ideas do 
not believe it. You hear of services at the 
burial of the dead in which not a word is 
spoken to intimate a belief in anything to 
follow but the decomposition of the body and 
the dissipation of the spiritual element in il¬ 
limitable space. Sternly speaks the Cross to 
us, who, no matter to what extent, are influ¬ 
enced by this revival of the worst of doubts, 
the doubt of our own reality and the truth 
of that God to whom all live. Why should 
the dread steal over you ? Why should you 
say, “ It seems so hard to believe, too pre¬ 
cious to be true; I wish I could feel sure w ? 
And why are you not sure ? Can any words 
be more exact than those, “ To-day shalt thou 


THE SECOND WORD. 


be with Me in Paradise ” ? Are they not de¬ 
cisive of every question you can raise, save 
one ? the fact, the place, the time, all stated 
with distinctness, all plain as words could 
make them? Why do you fear? What 
more evidence can you reasonably demand ? 
Is it that one might come back from the 
grave, and show himself alive, and convince 
men of the truth ? That also has occurred. 
One has come back —the same who spoke 
the words. Still you cannot feel sure? 
Nothing, then, could assure you. Unbelief 
would not trust its own eyes against its 
obdurate refusal to take God’s word for 
truth, and so unbelief is hopeless. 

How precious is this assurance from the 
Cross! And yet how darkly does that 
same Cross frown on a world which, after 
all this, will not believe! How threat¬ 
eningly does that Cross loom before our 
eyes when we give way to doubt of the 
truth of its message! If you, the redeemed 
of Christ, His favoured and elect children, 


THE SECOND WORD. 


are still so half-hearted, so fearful, you do 
not deserve the comfort, the cheer, the joy 
which the Grospel words convey. We owe 
to Jesus Christ our certainty of the life to 
come. If we will not accept His declara¬ 
tion as evidence, we cannot have, from any 
quarter, the proof of that of which we long 
to feel sure. Eeason fails; logic fails; science 
fails. No man, however wise and learned, 
can by searching find out Grod. No man 
can, by process of argument alone, prove 
the existence of a Paradise, a Heaven, a 
Hell, or any particular of a life of the world 
to come. Jesus Christ, and only He, can do 
that for us. And we are condemned to the 
righteous judgment of Grod if we let that 
truth go. We must guard it as by far the 
dearest of our possessions. We must keep 
our faith alive and warm by practice in the 
nearness of that other world; by acting hon¬ 
estly and simply, as men who believe it; by 
daily thought of it; especially by a bond of 
prayer linking us closely with the tenants of 


THE SECOND WOKD. 


the home beyond. We must not think of 
our dead as dead, but as alive unto God. 
They must have their old place in our 
hearts, in our prayers. May light perpetual 
shine on them! Such, for them, be our con¬ 
tinual request to God. 

This Cross, now vacant and still in the 
gathering dusk, stands like a monument on 
the grave of one blessed and happy soul saved 
by his simple, earnest faith in the Redeemer. 
From it, however, falls a black shadow on 
another grave—that of a lost companion, 
who died in sin, unrepentant, unabsolved, an 
alien and a stranger. The light and the dark¬ 
ness both touch us where we stand: light in 
the message of the sweet and blessed coun¬ 
try, darkness our everlasting portion if we 
refuse to walk in the light of the Lord. 


€f)e €f)itb JDocb. 

St. John xix. 26, 27. 


€$e i^ome. 


e €f)irt> UDotb. 


When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple 
standing by, whom He loved, He saith unto His mother, 
Woman, behold thy son! 

Then saith He to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And 
from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home. 

St. John xix. 26, 27. 

Now comes to us from the Cross a teach¬ 
ing on a subject among the most vital; and 
now descends a rebuke on the madness 
which sends men beyond the reach of God, 
on the track opened by passion and self-will. 
The Home, the primal institution of the Lord 
in the days of man’s innocency; the church 
within the Church, whereof the bands are love 
and sacrifice; whose guardian is the Cross, 
emblem of discipline and represser of pas¬ 
sion ; the Home, which, resting for two thou¬ 
sand years on the sacramental foundation 


THE THIRD WORD. 


of divine gift and grace, is now threatened 
by the denial of that gift and grace, and the 
substitution of the will of the flesh, the 
selfishness of degraded souls, and the rest¬ 
less desire of hearts and wills making plea¬ 
sure the final end of existence. 

The Home was God’s own institution; 
but, like all His works, this was early de¬ 
faced by sin: polygamy, adultery, wrecked 
it, as they ever must; and then false ideas 
of the relations of God’s children broke up 
the sanctity of that place; it became a 
theatre for the overbearing pride of man, 
the degradation of woman, the slavery of 
unhappy children. When He came hither 
who died for us upon this Cross, among His 
cares was this, to build the old wastes, to 
repair and restore the desolation of many 
generations. Jesus elevated marriage to the 
rank of a sacrament in His Church; He 
took the Home and the Family under His 
direct protection; He signed His sons and 
daughters with the sign of the Cross, and 


THE THIRD WORD. 


gave them grace so to live together in this life 
that in the world to come they might have 
life everlasting. The Cross, there as every¬ 
where, is the symbol of the dedicated life, 
the guarantee of its perpetuity. Love, not 
passion, is the law of the home. Not till 
passion is transformed into the calm, steady 
force of love is the will of Glod fulfilled to¬ 
wards us. And the home life shall never 
be regarded by any one who knows the 
meaning of the Cross as other than a life of 
daily discipline. Man and woman are not 
joined together by the Church, for this world 
and for the next, in order that each may do 
his own will and take his own way; nor yet 
for a wild and reckless revel down the vale 
of years, with power to give each other the 
slip at pleasure and strike off wherever fancy 
bids. But man and wife are bound to prac¬ 
tise self-denial, to crucify the flesh, to tread 
with awe the path of duty. They have to 
concede, to renounce, to give up, to live as 
in bonds to Christ, and to find their happi- 


THE THIRD WORD. 


ness in doing the will of God and looking to 
the last and supreme end of our existence— 
union with Him, and with each other in Him. 
This is the lesson of the Cross on a subject 
which may well engage the closest thought 
of the wise, the most earnest attention of the 
lovers of the human race. The home, the 
* Christian home, cannot be kept without the 
Christian grace, and the Christian ideals, 
and the Christian spirit. See Blessed Mary 
and that disciple whom Jesus loved going 
quietly away, hand in hand, when all is over. 
“ From that hour that disciple took her unto 
his own home,” obedient to the word, “ Son, 
behold thy mother ”; and she goes with him, 
the monition echoing in her heart, “ Woman, 
Behold thy son.” Love and Sacrifice are here: 
Love, of which the example is before us in 
him who leaned on Jesus’ breast at supper; 
Sacrifice, perfected in her who said, at an 
awful moment of decision, yet without a 
doubt or a fear, “ Behold the handmaid of 
the Lord; be it unto me according to thy 


THE THIRD WORD. 


word.” Of these two, Love and Sacrifice, shall 
those homes be built in which are to be 
trained the men and women who shall re¬ 
generate the world. Such homes as these 
shall give the citizens to Christian states. 
Such homes as these, which nothing but 
death can break up, are the material of 
high-toned nations. Such shall be the 
schools and nurseries for the future tenants 
of the Paradise of God. The Cross is 
stamped, as a seal, on true love; on love as 
distinct from lust; on love which triumphs 
in temptation, and repels the storm and 
tempest of sin; the love which bears the 
signet of the Cross, is that which seeketh not 
her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no 
evil, beareth all things, believeth all things, 
endureth all things. Such love is not by 
nature in any heart; it is the work of the 
Holy Ghost; it is the cement by which the 
walls of the Home are held together; it is 
the life of the household; it hath promise of 
this world and of the world to come. Follow 


THE THIRD WORD. 


those figures which slowly and with deep 
searchings of heart recede from this deserted 
hill. Follow them in thought, and try to 
picture to yourself the peace which must 
reign where the benediction from the Cross 
has made the home, and where the spirit of 
Jesus is the ruling power among its inmates. 

While we thus reflect, the darkness deep¬ 
ens, and a voice of stern remonstrance and 
reproof is heard from that symbol of divine 
love. What have men done, what are they 
doing, with the family and the home? 
What wild theories are they putting forth 
in opposition to the message from the Cross ? 
“ Those whom God hath joined together let 
no man put asunder.” “ Children, obey your 
parents in the Lord.” What do we hear in 
contradiction to these divinely expressed 
obligations? What defiance of the law of 
God, in the laws of states whose very exis¬ 
tence rests on that law! What approval 
of the substitution of passion for love! 
What angry expostulation on the part of 


THE THIRD WORD. 


those whom mutual affection has ceased to 
hold together, when forbidden to separate 
and seek new alliances! What cold-blooded 
calculation on the ease of dissolving a union, 
in case things do not turn out well! What 
breaking up of homes, what consecutive 
polygamy, what practical disinheritance of 
children! What undertaking of the most 
serious of all imaginable engagements with¬ 
out one lofty, worthy motive, for a merce¬ 
nary consideration, for the gratification of 
a transitory fancy, for an independent posi¬ 
tion, for escape from the prospect of a soli¬ 
tary old age, for the freedom which the 
married state confers! How sternly frowns 
the Cross on levity such as this! How in¬ 
dignantly it rejects transgressors of this 
class from the number of those who, as they 
bear the name, should bear also the marks, 
of the Lord Jesus. How very clear it is, as 
we look about us and listen and read, that a 
philosophy practically atheistic is doing its 
utmost to break up the Home, to destroy the 


THE THIRD WORD. 


Family, to alienate the wedded from each 
other, to tear children from the arms of their 
parents, on the plea that the highest end 
for which we can live is pleasure and selfish 
enjoyment, and that all should be free from 
every hindrance to the pursuit of the desire 
of their heart! 

Thus, then, does this Cross of Christ, “ to 
the Jew a stumbling-block, and to the Greek 
foolishness,” and now so bitterly derided by 
the animalism and materialism of the age, 
stand at the very centre of that civilisation 
in which so many boast and so many more 
repose a boundless trust; and thus does it 
preach to us of that spirit and principle of 
sacrifice of which it is the perpetual expres¬ 
sion ; and thus does it warn us that, without 
that principle as the spring of individual and 
social action, the very foundations of this 
civilisation must be swept away. The first 
word of Christ inculcates the need of one all- 
comprehending, all-embracing charity if men 
are ever to be drawn together and held to- 


THE THIRD WORD. 


getlier as one. The second word assures ns 
of the rest which heart and soul desire in a 
peaceful state beyond these scenes. The 
third comes home to us as a people blessed 
of the Lord, yet standing only so long as 
they are true to His covenant and His tes¬ 
timonies ; and warnings follow fast on 
promises. And so the Cross, whence those 
messages proceeded, has something about it 
at which the heart may tremble when reflect¬ 
ing what men will do should they ever suc¬ 
ceed in turning the world back and hiding 
Calvary altogether from the sight. 



€lje fourty JlDoci). 

St. Matt, xxvii. 46 . 

CI)c 5B>ecpe;3t ©eptl). 

I 
































































































€fjc tfourtf) MDocb. 


And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, 
saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, 
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?— St. Matt, xxvii. 46. 

Theke must be pause in every work of 
man—a time to stop, a time to leave off 
whatever may have occupied our thoughts 
or our hands, a time for retreat, retirement, 
and rest. Such a point have we reached in 
reflecting on the double messages from the 
naked, lonely Cross. For blessing and for 
ban ! So was it then ; so has it been; so shall 
it be even to the end. But now for a few 
minutes even the Cross shall be silent; and 
we, companions of the Cross, thus gathered 
together where it stands, or once appeared 
to stand, may enter into silence in our own 
hearts, and maintain that silence while 


THE FOURTH WORD. 


something passes over the scene—some¬ 
thing now coming upon our Blessed Lord, 
which is in itself so terrible, and withal so 
inexplicable, that nothing is left for mortal 
man but to hold his breath, and bow the 
head, and bend the knee, and wait till this 
last storm passes by. 

Darkness seems now to be coming upon 
us from every side. Successive waves 
thereof are filling the air. Under that 
darkness even the Cross begins to disap¬ 
pear. Its outlines grow confused and dim. 
At last we see it no more. Behind the veil 
of that unearthly and supernatural darkness 
is going on the deepest tragedy since the 
world began. u Save Me, 0 Grod: for the 
waters are come in, even unto My soul.” 
“ All Thy waves and storms are gone over 
Me.” “ Thou hast laid Me in the lowest pit, 
in a place of darkness, and in the deep.” 
What meaneth this? Let the prophet an¬ 
swer : “ He hath laid on Him the iniquity of 
us all.” Jesus has reached a point to which 


THE FOURTH WORD. 


none other of woman born ever went or ever 
could go. For if it were possible that human 
nature, as borne by any one of us, could be 
cut off from that God in whom we live and 
move and have our being, the result must be 
an instant resolution into its elements, and 
a vanishing for ever from the limits of a crea¬ 
tion which exists only as it is in Him. It is 
impossible to imagine such a thing as a crea¬ 
ture cut off from the Creator and yet surviv¬ 
ing by itself and living in its own force and 
strength. So, then, Jesus has reached a 
point to which no man could follow Him, 
to which no finite mind can follow Him; not 
even in our thought can we so follow Him 
as to measure what it was. Conjecture is 
useless as to the meaning of that cry, “ My 
God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken 
Me?” 

There is no lesson to be drawn from a 
thing absolutely inapplicable to men. There 
is no warning to be drawn from such an in¬ 
stance of solitary and unfathomable distress. 


THE FOURTH WORD. 


There is nothing for ns to do but to look to¬ 
wards that shadowy curtain, and be still. 

Yet in doing so we may think—if thought 
must still be active—of the love of Jesus 
Christ for man; that He spared not Himself, 
that He learned what none but God can 
know; that He did this in order that He 
might help us. Let us try to form some 
picture to ourselves of what that supreme 
agony must have been. The earth on which 
we dwell is surrounded on every side by 
depths of space. The earth is wrapped 
about by clouds, the emanation from the 
incessant and innumerable sins of restless 
men. Our transgressions maintain an un¬ 
drawn veil between us and the Face of God. 
Upon the surface of the earth, around it, 
and above it, layer on layer, lies this moral 
and spiritual darkness; and it means uni¬ 
versal, all-shadowing, all-oppressing Sin. 
Through this wrapping of expiatory dark¬ 
ness walked the Atoning Eedeemer, the 
High Priest of our salvation, of whom it is 


THE FOURTH WORD. 


related that He was “ a Man of sorrows, and 
acquainted with grief,” of whom we read but 
once or twice in His life that He rejoiced; 
and, so walking, He was within the bounds 
which confine us, and in our place, and bear¬ 
ing what we bear. But all things of ours 
have their limits; and the darkness which 
can come over the spirit of a man has limits 
on our side, but perhaps none beyond, or 
none which we can comprehend. An outer 
darkness lies beyond, of which we, in our 
limited experience, know nothing. So Jesus 
walked up and down through the gloom 
where Satan’s seat is, which our sins make 
about us, and in which the sinner also walks, 
till He came to a point at which He had 
reached our limit and beyond which lies the 
unspeakable and the unknown. On still He 
went, until to Him, standing thus at the 
edge of the fallen world, a door was opened 
into the outer darkness, the darkness beyond 
—into the abyss which holds the secret of 
the origin of evil and the mystery thereof; 


THE FOURTH WORD. 


and into that abyss did He then look, with 
the icy wind of eternal darkness and eternal 
death blowing upon His wasted frame, and 
the horrible secret disclosed to Him and 
borne into His inmost being. “ Save Me, 
O God: for the waters are come in, even 
unto My soul.” And to that length and to 
such a position went the Saviour for love of 
the children whom He was redeeming by 
His Agony and Blood. 

And the only other thing to think of— 
since curiosity must be restrained in a mat¬ 
ter between the Eternal Father and the 
Eternal Son, into which no creature can 
enter—is the rashness, the madness, of the 
sinner, who, forgetful of God, trifling with 
God, rebelling against God, pushes on, reck¬ 
less, defiant, while shadows grow ever deeper 
and deeper, where the light dies more and 
more away, nearing day by day that point 
where God also may forsake him , as He for¬ 
sook His only begotten Son that day, and 
when nothing shall be left in the soul but a 


THE FOURTH WORD. 


long and exceeding bitter cry, the wail from 
a darkness where the light has been extin¬ 
guished and can be rekindled no more. 

While we have been thus waiting the 
cloud is passing by; we begin to see the 
Cross once more—a faint appearance of 
misty lines, one upright, the other trans¬ 
verse, till the object is once more in view; 
and now, the Great Agony of Dereliction 
being over, we shall hear some added lessons, 
some added warnings, till the ninth hour be 
come. 

Meanwhile let us kneel and pray. 


/ 





€&e 3pifrt> lOorti. 

St. John. xix. 28. 

€&e ^oul atl)ttjst for d0oD. 




€f )t jptftf) ItDorb. 


After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now ac¬ 
complished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I 
thirst.— St. John xix. 28. 

We have heard the lamentation of Jesus 
on the Cross, under the torment of agonising 
thirst attendant on the approach of death: 
“I am weary of crying; My throat is 
dry. . . . My strength is dried up like a 
potsherd, and My tongue cleaveth to My 
gums. . , . They gave Me gall to eat: and 
when I was thirsty they gave Me vinegar to 
drink.” Now that the Passion is ended, and 
now that we are left with this Cross as the 
reminder of what has been done and suffered 
for us by our Lord, let us ask what this Cross 
has to tell us about thirst, the thirst of the 
body, the thirst of the mind, and the thirst 


THE FIFTH W0KD. 


of the soul; what thirst is salutary, and what 
must go unslaked to all eternity. 

To thirst is natural to man—a condition 
of his mortal state. First, it assails him 
through the body, an animal want. And 
everything must thirst that lives, from the 
highest to the lowest, from the lowest up to 
the highest, in Grod’s creation. Below, among 
the very poor, thirst is another word for the 
need of the wherewithal to live,—the poor 
hardly know a higher want,—clothing suffi¬ 
cient to defend from cold, and food enough 
from day to day. As men rise above that 
forlorn condition, the range of desire ex¬ 
tends: they ask for more than bodily life; 
they begin to see that the life is more than 
meat, and the body than raiment. As fast 
as he is relieved from anxiety about the 
physical, man becomes aware of his capacity 
for the intellectual and the spiritual; and the 
thirst begins for something better than bread 
and meat. And thence men go still higher. 
The final end for which we were created 


THE FIFTH WOKD. 


comes, first dimly, then more and more 
clearly, into view. Man sees God in front 
somewhere, and would go up to God. The 
bodily want is forgotten in the mental and 
intellectual want, and that, in turn, yields to 
the spiritual, until man thirsts for union 
with One who alone can satisfy; for our 
heart is restless until it rest in Thee. So 
on this line of thirst we can make a ladder 
on which travels the desire which never has 
ceased and never shall cease to torment the 
heart till it find rest in God. 


/ God, the supreme end. 
/ Spiritual thirst. > 

/ Intellectual thirst. / 

I Physical thirst. / 

Earth. / 


Now, what of thirst in the lowest stage of 
all—the bodily, material, sensual life? Can 
that be satisfied ? Hear our Lord. “ Jesus, 
being wearied with His journey, sat by 








THE FIFTH WOKD. 


Jacob’s well. . . . And a woman of Samaria 
came to draw water. . . . And Jesus said, 
Whosoever drinketh of this water shall 
thirst again.” Physical thirst, ever urgent, 
never appeased; certain in every instance 
and inevitably to become distress, torment, 
agony, if not supplied. Man drinketh of 
this water from the wells of the lower life, 
and, though for the moment satisfied, he 
must in a few hours drink again, or, if not, 
he must die a horrible death. Now thirst 
like that is merely the symbol of thirst 
which tends towards objects lower than 
God. It may be fed for a time by them; 
it can never be sated, give it what you may. 
Thirst for any one object which we put in 
place of God is a hopeless thirst, feverish, 
intermittent. You think you have appeased 
it to some extent to-day, but to-morrow it 
consumes you again. You must rise above 
such limited desire. You must go on, far on, 
led by the Spirit. Do so, and at last you 


THE FIFTH WORD. 


reach the point where thirst, though it cease 
not, becomes a joy, refreshing, not torment¬ 
ing, when you are weary. Thirst for any 
lower object of desire, and you shall never 
be filled, nor shall your thirst be stayed. 
Let go that object; climb the height above 
you towards which the Spirit is drawing you. 
You shall attain a point at which to thirst 
is not to suffer, but to receive of the fulness 
of Him that filleth all in all. 

Again let us hear the Master’s voice: 
“Whosoever drinketh of the water that I 
shall give him shall never thirst; but the 
water that I shall give him shall be in him 
a well of water springing up into everlasting 
life.” And again: “ Blessed are they that do 
hunger and thirst after righteousness: for 
they shall be filled.” Such thirst as this is 
the life of loving souls: “ Like as the hart 
desireth the water-brooks, so longeth my soul 
after Thee, 0 God. My soul is athirst for 
God, yea, even for the living God.” They 


THE FIFTH WORD. 


who so thirst have the promise, “ and they 
shall be filled.” “They shall hunger no 
more, neither thirst any more.” 

Hear the reproach of the Cross, how it re¬ 
bukes the desire of man for that which 
can neither satisfy nor be satisfied, which 
leaves a continually recurring pain, a void 
which nothing can fill. Such is the thirst 
for the gratification of fleshly appetite and 
carnal desire, after which men turn from 
their very selves in shame and remorse, yet 
only soon to go back for a new draught of 
that which eats out life and health and 
spreads poison through the soul. Such is 
the desire for unblessed knowledge—the old 
snare spread by the Devil in Eden for in¬ 
cautious feet when he whispered that they 
might become as gods, knowing good and 
evil, and that the Lord their Grod was doing 
them a wrong in restraining them by His 
command and prohibition. How does that 
Cross of the Lord threaten and warn us of 
the end of setting the affections on things 


THE FIFTH WORD. 


beneath, and not on the things above! And 
what a cry is that—what an exceeding bit¬ 
ter cry—which swells ever from this trou¬ 
bled world: “I thirst”! It was His lond 
cry in that darkness, made by our sins, 
around His sacred Head: “ I thirst.” It is 
still the cry of humanity, unhelped, unfed, 
unsatisfied, because they will not go for help, 
for food, for satisfaction of their want, to 
Him. If He said, “ I thirst,” it was to draw 
us about Him, in our thirst, as to the only 
source from which that thirst of ours can be 
supplied. For His wounded side was that 
Rock smitten in the wilderness, whereout 
flowed blood and water, that our sin might 
be forgiven and washed away, and that we 
might drink, and thirst no more for ever. 
And yet, how rolls forth, in heavy, hopeless 
waves of direful sound, that cry, “ I thirst ”! 
Yes; I thirst for pleasure; I thirst for fame 
and reputation; I thirst for human friend¬ 
ship and human love, for the praise of men, 
for the consciousness of superiority over 


THE FIFTH WORD. 


others, for the means of applauding myself; 
perhaps I thirst for low delights, for dainty 
meats, for strong drink, for fine and showy 
apparel, for the scenes of revelry and dissi¬ 
pation ; I thirst for power, place, a name to 
live, for flattery and compliments; I thirst 
for information, for mastery of the secrets 
of nature, for the knowledge of good and 
evil; alas! I may be a-hungered and cold 
and poor, and I thirst for what I see others 
have, and to be well-to-do, and comfortable, 
and at my ease, like them. 0 poor, dissat¬ 
isfied, harassed, and troubled race! 0 scene 
of eager and hopeless longing and desire, on 
which this Cross looks down, telling that 
everlasting truth which men as everlastingly 
decline to believe! There is no relief from 
it, excepting in the Cross and that for which 
it stands. Sayest thou, “ It cannot satisfy 
me”? So be it. Those things on which 
elsewhere thou art setting thy heart shall 
never do for thee what this Cross could do; 
thy thirst can never be satisfied; thou shalt 


THE FIFTH WORD. 


go thus, wretched and tormented, from loss 
to loss, all the days of thy life. The Cross, 
and that for which it stands, and He for 
whom it stands—this only can refresh the 
soul. “ And He showed me a pure river of 
water of life, clear as crystal”; and on the 
bank thereof stands the figure of the Cross, 
and diamonds cover it, and their light is re¬ 
flected in that living flood. 




€fje £ijetf> tOortJ. 

St. John xix. 30. 




I 





Cfje d&ijrtlj 3©orb. 

When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, 
It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the 
ghost.— St. John xix. 30. 

What have we next to think of? what 
next to hear ? This is the last word but one. 
Towards the end comes the peace. In the 
seventh word it is attained—God’s gift of 
perfect rest. This sixth word indicates that 
the end of the Passion is near, the end of 
Christ’s Passion, the end of their passion 
who will end it in His. When all is finished 
man enters into rest. 

Consummatum est! Did our dear Master 
ever utter a more satisfying word, a word 
which goes more straight to the weary soul ? 
What does the soul long for, if not for an end 


THE SIXTH WORD. 


in which to be content and at peace, for the 
term of strife, for the final closing np of 
agitation, debate, dispute ? What weariness 
is that occasioned by the monotony of cease¬ 
less questioning without apparent hope of 
answer, by the burden of having matters 
kept open as if they were never to be closed f 
The day brings before us some confusing 
and much-involved subject. It was there 
last week, and yesterday; it is here to-day; 
apparently we shall be still tormented with 
it to-morrow. It is confused and perplex¬ 
ing. Opinions vary greatly about it. They 
are diverse and innumerable; no two men 
seem to think alike; one thinks one thing, 
another thinks something else. Parties are 
formed, with leaders, names, and watch¬ 
words, and fight begins. No one can say 
where truth is. The miserable thing vexes 
the community by day, and haunts our 
dreams at night. Oh that suspense were 
ended! Oh that we could hear some voice 
announcing, “It is finished; it is settled; 


THE SIXTH WOKD. 


and you shall have no more annoyance from 
this disturber of your peace ”! 

Such was that voice which spake from the 
Cross. Jesus settled once for all certain 
things, blessed be He that He did so! And 
among the things settled for us were these: 
the truth which men long to know; the end 
to which they should aspire; the manner in 
which only it is safe to walk. “ I am the 
Way, the Truth, and the Life.” That an¬ 
nouncement made a finished work. It 
marked the limit to reasonable debate. It 
met those who want to know in whom and 
in what to believe, and realise what it is to 
simmer and broil on the gridiron of perpet¬ 
ual doubt and uncertainty. It reminds us 
of the first creative word, to which, indeed, 
it may be taken as a parallel: “ Let there 
be light: and there was light.” So, “ Let it 
be finished: and it is finished.” Finished 
for wise and understanding spirits; finished 
for the saints on earth and the souls of the 
faithful in Paradise. There are no super- 


THE SIXTH WORD. 


seding truths. There is to be no new gos¬ 
pel. No religion can be devised or invented 
to take the place of ours or do for man what 
ours does. There is no progression towards 
a point where Christ and His things shall 
pass from human sight. Christ grows not 
old; He is “the same yesterday, and to¬ 
day, and for ever.” The Cross stands firm; 
and so shall it stand till the end of the 
world. In this sense we understand the 
statement of the Divine Saviour, “It is 
finished.” 

Wherefore this Cross, which speaks to us 
of Jesus Christ completing and consummat¬ 
ing a perfect work, is precious beyond any 
symbol that we know. We have joy and 
peace in believing. We know whom we 
have believed. We are not the children of 
disobedience, driven about by every wind 
of doctrine, but obedient children, the eyes 
of whose understanding are enlightened. 
“ God forbid that we should glory, save in 
the Cross of Christ,” and in the light which 


THE SIXTH WORD. 


streams forth from it, making the way plain 
before the face. 

But, as heretofore, so now again, listen to 
the rebuke of this Cross—its last rebuke, 
and perhaps the most stern and terrible of 
all. It sets its ban, it throws its darkest 
shadow, on the quarters where they preach 
new gospels and pretend to see new Christs. 
How much of that is in the world to-day! 
How constant the excited cry, “ Lo, here is 
Christ! ” or, “ Lo, He is there ! 79 They begin 
by some slight changes in the system framed 
by the Lord; they go on to others still more 
presumptuous; then, worst of all, they put 
all their doubts and all their infidelities into 
a philosophic theory which breathes through¬ 
out of rebellion against the Lord, of which 
the principles are direct contradictions of 
what He told us for our joy and peace. “ It 
is not finished,” say they, these enemies of 
the Cross of Christ; “ it is not finished. We 
are still moving on; we are looking for the 
Christ that is to be. We shall see this old 


THE SIXTH WORD. 


system wear out and pass away like a show, 
and another come in, better adapted to our 
needs. We are dethroning Jesus as a God, 
and reducing Him to His real place; we are 
disestablishing that Church which He built 
into the souls and consciences of men. 
New Christs are coming, who shall do us 
good. Nothing is finished. What men 
have had these nineteen hundred years is 
not sufficient for them now. The Law 
passed away, and the Gospel is passing 
away; and we, apostles of reason, are the 
heralds of an improved religion. We can¬ 
not yet discern its outline; we cannot say 
what form it shall take; we cannot give it 
a name: but it is coming, and will presently 
assert its power.” Against such wild heresy 
as this the Cross sends forth its strongest 
protest: “The enemies of the Cross of Christ, 
whose end is destruction.” Many shall 
come in His Name, saying, “ I am Christ.” 
“There shall arise false Christs, and false 
prophets, and shall show great signs and 


THE SIXTH WORD. 


wonders ”: “ But go ye not after them; be¬ 
lieve them not.” That is the threatening 
message from the Cross towards the ending 
of the day, as the sun is declining and the 
night draws on. That is contained, con¬ 
veyed, reiterated, year after year, century 
after century, in the “ Consummatum est .” 

There will, no doubt, be men in all times 
till the end, and in great numbers, who can¬ 
not take Christ’s word, with what it con¬ 
tains, and simply confess that it is finished. 
They cannot believe it, because they cannot 
forget self and be content to rest in the 
Word of Grod. But His own people will 
hear and believe; and “ they shall hunger 
no more, neither thirst any more,” except 
for the assurance of sight as to those things 
which now they know by faith. “Keep, 
we beseech Thee, 0 Lord, Thy Church with 
Thy perpetual mercy.” Keep it anchored to 
this Cross, as an anchor sure and steadfast, 
entering into that within the veil. By the 
sign of the Cross the Church triumphed 


THE SIXTH WOKD. 


over the old heathenism. It is still the sign 
of power. It speaks of a faith unchanging, 
a Saviour undying, an intercession unceas¬ 
ing, a love unfailing, a religion which can¬ 
not be destroyed, an inheritance that fadeth 
not away. 


€f)c jSebentfj IDotb. 

St. Luke xxiii. 46. 


(Eternal IHest. 





€fi&eUentl) iUorti, 


And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, 
Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit: and having 
said thus, He gave up the ghost.— St. Luke xxiii. 46. 

“ Hold Thou Thy Cross before my closing eyes: 
Shine through the gloom, and point me to the 
skies: 

Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shad¬ 
ows flee: 

In life, in death, 0 Lord, abide with me.” 

In life, in death. Great is man’s need in 
life; greater his need in death. But whether 
we live, may we live nnto the Lord; and 
whether we die, may we die unto the Lord. 
And so, 

“ In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.” 

There is no peace like that in which 
Christ’s Passion ends—none so deep, be- 


THE SEVENTH WORD. 


cause there was never sorrow like unto His; 
and the peace which now comes is one which 
passeth understanding. Of this peace, lastly, 
the Cross speaks to our souls. 

But, then, to gain that peace the former 
lessons of the Cross must have been studied 
and, according to our ability, put in practice. 
The way for such peace as this is prepared: 
by the forgiveness of enemies and by being 
in perfect charity with the world; by fre¬ 
quent meditation on that vast eternal state 
wherein death shall leave us; by the con¬ 
scientious discharge of duty to those amongst 
whom our lot has been cast; by submission 
to God’s holy disciplining will, whatever it 
may impose; by habitual longing and thirst 
for union with Him; by glad acceptance of 
His revelation of Himself through His Well- 
Beloved Son. Such practice be ours, and 
that shall bring a man peace at the last. 

Once more let us give attention to the 
solemn lesson from the Cross, before night 
falls, and stars come out like lamps lit in 


THE SEVENTH WORD. 


the skies of evening, and the day of grace 
is past and gone. Remember: these mes¬ 
sages from the Cross of Jesus Christ are 
always double, befitting the attitude of 
minds, the state of souls. The Cross lifts 
up, it casts down; it acquits, it also con¬ 
demns. Christ saves, He likewise judges; 
and, meanwhile, one man is taken, and an¬ 
other is left. Of what can you think with 
such secret and strange apprehension as of 
the coming of the end and the long-expected 
arrival of man’s last adversary? Yet is 
there a dread within that dread—another 
and a greater dread: the dread of unpre¬ 
pared, evil death. “ From sudden, unpre¬ 
pared, and evil death, Good Lord, deliver 
us ! ” Such is death when the dying man 
is not helped by the Cross, because he did 
not love it in his life, nor trust to it, or, 
worse, because he may have been its enemy. 
Oh, at such a moment, if there be power 
to feel, what must be felt by one who knows 
that the Holy Cross is nothing to him, who 


THE SEVENTH WORD. 


has no friend, no Saviour, on earth or be¬ 
yond it, to whom the sight of Calvary 
brings no gleam of hope! This Cross is 
the object which men and women have 
prized and loved more than aught else in 
the world; which they have worn on their 
hearts, unseen by companion or friend; 
which travellers in strange lands have kept 
on the person, that, in case of accident or 
death, they might be known for disciples of 
Christ; from which they have learned the 
best they ever knew; which has been to 
them an instructor in faith, hope, and 
charity; on which they have strained their 
dying eyes; under which sign, in the cata¬ 
combs of old, and now in the quiet church¬ 
yard and Grod’s-acre, the bones and dust 
await their resurrection. And this Cross, 
so dear, so precious, so far beyond all esti¬ 
mate in value, of what must it speak to the 
miserable creature dying out of Christ ? He 
cannot evade its censure and reproof; it 
stands there to condemn, and its shadow 


THE SEVENTH WORD. 


falls on his death-bed, long and black and 
still. 

But let this Cross be to us for comfort 
and peace when for us also the inevitable 
hour arrives. “ Thou wilt light my candle: 
the Lord my God will enlighten my dark¬ 
ness.” The darkness comes of our three 
enemies, Sin, Pain, and Death. On this 
Cross Christ has made full satisfaction for 
the sin of the whole world. On this Cross 
Christ has borne such pain as martyr 
never knew, that we may be comforted and 
strengthened, whatever we have to bear. 
On this Cross hath Jesus died, and thus we 
learn of Jesus Christ to die. And now is the 
time to learn it; now, in time of health, in 
time of prosperity, prepare to die. Now, 
when the brain is clear, and the mind un¬ 
clouded, and the frame is in health and 
sound, now learn to die. Sickness is not 
the time to prepare for death. Disease, with 
its attendant distresses and torments, must 
render it impossible to come thoughtfully 


THE SEVENTH WORD. 


and calmly to God. Fever, hallucinations, 
wandering of mind, excitement through 
stimulants, and anxiety through nervous 
distress—are these the helpers to him who 
sees that he must make ready for an inter¬ 
view with his Judge, and needs the fulness 
of his powers to prepare for that dread 
meeting? The sick man knows too well 
that it is the worst of all times for him to 
prepare for death. The thoughtless, if well- 
meaning, physician hides the truth from 
him; knowing that he is about to die, the 
physician encourages him to think that he 
is not to die. 0 fatal error! to put off re¬ 
pentance till our sins forsake us, and not 
we our sins—till the power of sinning is 
gone! To be to us a help and comfort in 
death, this Cross must have been our true 
and beloved companion in life. And if so, 
the fear of death is gone. It is dead on 
that Cross on which our sins are dead, on 
which one is crucified with Christ; and 
blessed are they who thus suffer crucifixion, 


THE SEVENTH WORD. 


for they rise again to a better hope, and 
perfect love casts ont their fears. 

It is now time to depart hence and return 
each to his own place. But as we go let ns 
take with us thoughtful hearts and, still 
better, anxious hearts. Thoughtful must 
we be if indeed moved by the recital of the 
Passion once again, and anxious lest we 
may have received this grace to no purpose. 
When the sun went down upon Jerusalem, 
the memory of the things which had oc¬ 
curred that day was already beginning to 
fade as the people resumed the tenor of their 
life, and entered into their occupations, and 
took up their work, and resumed their 
pleasures; and so for a while they forgot 
what had happened, and the world went on 
as before. So is it with many when Lent 
and Holy Week are ended; they go their 
way and straightway forget. But let it not 
be so with us, and let us carry hence im¬ 
pressions too deeply stamped upon the mind 


THE SEVENTH WORD. 


and heart to be easily effaced. As we re¬ 
cede from the mountain whereon the great 
Master has taught us His favourite lesson, 
let it be with a resolve to practise it and 
find out what it means; and let us try to 
keep that Sacred Hill always in view, on 
the horizon of our journey; and let us watch 
the Cross, that it may be to us like that pil¬ 
lar of cloud and fire which led Israel through 
the wilderness. So watched, and watching 
over us, the Cross shall be at last the sign 
of final victory over every foe, and the 
pledge of the life of the world to come; its 
lessons well learned, its warnings duly 
heeded; our own in life, in death. “ Blessed 
are the dead who die in the Lord.” “ For I 
am the Resurrection, and the Life,” saith 
the Lord: “ he that believeth in Me, though 
he were dead, yet shall he live: and whoso¬ 
ever liveth and believeth in Me shall never 
die.” 










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